Thiruchendur Murugan Temple is a Temple situated in Tiruchendur, Tamil Nadu dated 2000 years back. The temple is one of the 6 Abodes of Lord Murugan and situated near the sea of Bay of Bengal where the other 5 temples are situated in Mountains.
Veera Mahendrapuri was ruled by Surapadma, an asura, who was the son of Rishi Kashyaba. Since the sage focused on stringent meditations, his sons grew up as Asuras.
However, Surapadma was a sincere devotee of Lord Shiva and he spent most of his time to meditate on his favorite deity.
As a result of his determined adoration, Lord Shiva gave him a boon, according to which Surapadman could neither be killed nor be defeated by anybody in this world, except the offspring of Lord Shiva born without Shiva’s unification with any woman.
The boundless boon of Lord Shiva made Surabadman very arrogant that he conquered all the 3 mythical worlds – The Heaven, The Earth and The Hell. All the Devas were taken as prisoners and were tortured. The heavenly immortals were assigned to perform menial tasks.
Eventually, they surrendered to Lord Shiva take actions to relieve them. At their request, Lord Shiva exhaled 6 different sparkles by opening his third eye. These sparkles reached the Saravana Poigai, the divine lake, where the divine sparkles transubstantiated into 6 babies.
To take care of these babies, Lord sent 6 Karthika houris. Later, the divine couple went to Saravana Poigai, where Goddess Shakthi fondly merged the babies together to become Lord Karthikeya or Subramaniyan or Murugan, who protect his devotees with 6 faces and 12 arms.
Lord Aarumuga (another name of Lord Subramanya) grew up mastering the tactics of war and was exceptionally handsome that he became the chief commander of the Gods.
As per the word of Lord Shiva, he marched to Tiruchendur with his army to release the Devas from the cruel bondage. Veerabahu, his lieutenant, was sent to meet Surapadma as an emissary before the war, to free the Devas.
As it failed, Lord Murugan set out for a war. Despite losing his brothers, Surapadma refused to surrender and the war continued for 5 days. Finally, Lord Karthikeya’s Vel killed Surapadma.
At the request of Surapadma, Lord Murugan turned him to be a peacock, which became the vehicle of the Lord. Overwhelmed by the spirit of Lord Karthikeya, the Devas celebrated the grand success in Thiruchendur, the Southern tip of Indian subcontinent. Even now, lakhs and lakhs of devotees reach Tiruchendur to join the divine celebrations.
